Page 59 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Road Kill

currency. And if, as is the case among Jolibanans, many of whom are
strict Moslems, they already expect the worst sort of behavior from
us from their point of view, then they are not surprised by the antics
of a few young ugly Americans. Unfortunately, this laxity on both
sides allows for a variety of immoral and criminal activities, from
improper attire to drug dealing. Need I say more?”
“No, unless you want me to take action on anything you say.”
I was amazed at her point of view. She had analyzed her own peer
group pitilessly, placing it in a context few Americans would ever
admit to exist. I knew that some PCV’s smoked marijuana, but I
didn’t want to think about where they got it. I knew some of them
drank and misbehaved in bars and clubs around town, entered into
sexual liaisons with locals which usually ended badly, wore scruffy old
clothes in flagrant disrespect of Jolibanan standards. Where did you
draw the lines between youthful high jinks, legitimate releases of
tension, and unacceptable breaches of propriety? She was right.
We—that is, the responsible members of the American
community—looked the other way, much the way we would ignore
members of the youth culture back in the States.
“All right.” She was unfazed. “Then just take it as given that Ferris
is involved in extra-curricular activities which will not have to be
examined more closely unless he turns out to be a factor in Sally
Furth’s death. What is germane to our inquiry is that he was
extremely jealous of Sally’s male friends. She had no compunction
about stringing more than one man along at the same time, and, if
gossip is correct, this was a consistent pattern in her life. Sally Furth
was a manipulator of male egos, using and discarding men as she
pursued whatever goal struck her fancy. For many PCV’s, success
means getting a USAID contract after they finish their Peace Corps
tour of duty and working their way into high-paying consulting jobs.
Sally had flirted with Ferris, who has connections with USAID
people, in order to get into the solar energy project, then dropped
him cold when she succeeded. His ardor, however, did not diminish,
and he remained on her string, as it were. It is possible he supplied
her with, shall we say, unauthorized pharmaceutical substances.”
I shrugged. What else could I do?
“At any rate, he was in line behind Frank Bean and Ben Dover—
or, we might say, he was at the bottom of a heap of discards. Having

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